Custom Community Problem Solving Paper Essay

Introduction

This paper will briefly present a specific problem that was solved by community policing solved through a law enforcement initiative in Anaheim area of California.

Just last year, 2010, our neighborhood Anaheim experienced a tremendous problem with robbers preying on small apartments in the community. People were shot, stabbed or robbed on a daily basis. It was alleged that the gangs used to deal with drugs and indeed sale of narcotics skyrocketed and new graffiti appeared daily. To fight this problem, the Anaheim police department decided to assign some community policing officers to help improve the deteriorating conditions in the neighborhood.

The assigned police officers used conventional enforcement methods and arrested about 200 individuals in the neighborhood in the one year they were assigned in the neighborhood. The strategy continued for a year but they realized that it was not working to reducing crime in Anaheim. The illicit activities of the gangs remained high and unchecked.

Upon this realization that they could not easily eradicate the vice in neighborhood, they sought help from the community to help them stem the vice. In the scenario, there are two cases of crime that they were dealing with; that of graffiti and gangs.

For the first case of graffiti, after some interviews with the community members, it was found that the graffiti taggers selected the area because it was in a dark place to passers-by, especially a where buildings converged in a corner at the end of a poorly lit road. It was discovered that visibility was reduced by the some live fences that had overgrown at the site’s perimeter. Although business peak from 9am to 5pm and can even go further to 9pm. On the case of gangs, banks are situated along the commercial street with ATMs and gangs pound on suspecting customers. The robbers hide in dark places near the teller machines and attack unsuspecting ATM users after they have completed their transactions.

Within the same year, the city established a successful plan that reduced crime in the area by about 80 percent. This was like an eye opener in that it was realized that the efforts for this reduction did not come just from the law enforcers but from great help from the community. After interviewing the community dwellers on the possible hideouts for the gangs, the police took appropriate action to ensure that the neighborhood was safe. The actions taken are documented below;

In the case of graffiti, bushy hedges were trimmed. Light masts were installed along the road as well as motion detection lighting in the affected areas. On the part of robberies to especially ATM users, we requested the bank to help fix a wall to help act as a barrier between the bank between the ATM machines and parking area as well as the drive way. The lightning also helped to ensure that the robbers do not hide in dark places. In addition to the above, the community’s pride filled everyone and most people wanted to take part in improving security of the most affected areas and indeed the whole community.

But as expected, the community policy enforcers and the police do encounter problems and therefore the police should work closely with the community enforcers to ensure it is a success. This is especially from the community dwellers who regard this job as entirely for the police and thus that they have nothing to do in helping reduce crime. But it should be understood that mutual responsibility with community should form a basis of reducing crime by engaging all those who are involved; the police as well as the community dwellers to eradicate crime. This can be a success if ongoing problems are tackled by well developed strategic plans and deteriorated neighborhoods. By enlisting everyone to work and be part of the team, then this type of fighting crime can do more to fight crime than the normal way we used to fighting crime; that of depending on the police to fight crime and criminals directly.

The experience at Anaheim has shown that when the city dwellers understands their role in fighting crime by the help of the police then real progress will be made to reduce crime or eliminated completely and thus make our neighborhoods be safe. People should realize that community policing is everyone’s responsibility in helping fighting crime. This will thus improve our living conditions in the areas we live in.